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  • Report:  #2479

Complaint Review: Firestone - Wichita Kansas

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Firestone
East Kellogg (at Towne East) Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A.
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(in my personal opinion) Beware of the Firestone Tire and Mastercare repair center located on E. Kellogg (at Towne East). I think they have numerous methods of unconscionably ripping-off customers with impunity. A comprehensive list of their "dirty" practices would be much too long for this forum. Therefore, I'll just touch on a couple of them to give you the idea.

First, when you go in for tires (and only tires), they'll always open your engine compartment to inspect various components (I guess this is supposed to be a complimentary courtesy service). However, upon closer examination, this is where I believe that the scam begins. For example, the service manager will tell you that your battery is running low and will ask you if you would like them to check it. If you say NO, your battery will be completely dead (not even enough juice to run your interior dome light)when you pick up your car (and of course, they have the jumper cables ready for you). It's obvious that batteries don't just go from cranking fine to being completely dead within an hour. The exact method of "killing" your battery is unclear but I think it certainly does occur. I always though that a courtesy service was supposed to be for my benefit foremost, not to break things that were working just fine.

Next, in my opinion, having your air conditioning system serviced there can be a nightmare that doesn't end until you sell your car. In short, if your a/c unit doesn't work after a visit to Firestone, check to see if the drive belt to the compressor is still attached instead of buying a whole new compressor. Belts have a mysterious way of falling off the compressor pulley (wink! wink!)

For some final thoughts on the auto repair industry in general, honest shops can make an honest buck and lots of it. Resorting to "theft" from the general public is cowardly and your name shouldn't have to be Ralph Nader to avoid the boogy woogy! Our cars are an item that we have little control over when we entrust businesses to do work on them. If doctors and lawyers can be stripped of their licenses for breaching that trust, then repair shops should be closed down as well. It's not as big of a political issue such as taxes and gun-control, but all of us owning cars should exercise our franchise and demand that legislation in this area be overhauled to put these criminals where they belong.



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